Tension between Sam Jones and Mobile City Council bubble up over Brewer Center property

View full sizeA simmering power struggle between Mayor Sam Jones and some members of the City Council manifested itself again this morning as Councilman John Williams blocked a routine agenda item on the grounds that the mayor had usurped the council’s authority.

MOBILE, Alabama -- A simmering power struggle between Mayor Sam Jones and some members of the City Council manifested itself again this morning as Councilman John Williams blocked a routine agenda item on the grounds that the mayor had usurped the council’s authority.

The confrontation occurred after Jones presented the council with an agreement to help pay for demolition of the old Albert P. Brewer Center, a residential facility for people with mental disabilities that has been abandoned for years.

The county and the city each own half of the 40-acre property on Hitt Road off of Schillinger Road.

Under the agreement, the county would pay up to $300,000 for demolition of the buildings while the city would pay only $73,000.

Williams said his grievance isn’t with the split Jones had negotiated with the county. After all, the majority of the buildings were on the city’s half of the property.

Williams said he disapproves of the way the mayor went around the council to get the deal done.

Jones gave the green light for the county to proceed with the demolition months ago.

By the time the agreement came to the City Council for ratification this morning, the Brewer Center buildings had long since been torn down.

Essentially, Jones was asking the council to sign off on a deal that was already done.

Jones should have sent the memorandum of understanding to the council before work began, Williams said. “He cannot obligate city money without a vote of the council, be it for $1 or $1 million,” he said.

Williams withheld his consent to bring the matter to a vote, meaning it will reappear on next week’s council agenda.

Jones said that the county approached him last year about cooperating in the demolition project so he moved on it. If he hadn’t, he said, the county might have opted to only take down the buildings on its half of the property.

That would have left the city with the liability of the blighted structures on its property, which had become a magnet for vagrants and drug activity, Jones said.

Jones also pointed out that the money for the city’s portion of the demolition was a line item in the budget that was clearly earmarked for the Brewer Center -- the implication being that the council tacitly approved the deal when it approved the budget.

“What they are really trying to do, is micromanages the administration,” he said.

Williams will only delay a vote on the issue until next week. He said that he fully expects the agreement with the county to be approved.